Shropshire-based dog food company, Different Dog, which recently appeared on the BBC Worldwide News programme “The Inside Track” has been nominated in three categories in the prestigious Pet Industry Federation Awards.
The Pet Industry Federation (PIF) is the membership association for pet industry specialists in the UK and is the only organisation to represent all types of businesses in the pet industry. The PIF Awards are the premier awards for the UK’s pet industry. Celebrating success across a wide range of products, services, companies and individuals, the awards provide the perfect platform to recognise excellence and innovation in the industry. Different Dog has been nominated for Manufacturer of the Year, E-Commerce Business of the Year and Product Innovation categories. The awards will be presented later on in the year.
Different Dog was started by husband and wife team, Charlie and Alexandra Thurstan. Charlie said; “I used to work for a company that sold a lot of dog food. One day I got to see the food being made and it turned my world upside down. It seemed crazy to me that a diet of purely processed food, which has a two year shelf life and doesn’t even live in the fridge, could really be the best way to health and happiness. So Alex, Crumble and I set out to prove that adding hand cooked food to a dog's diet would change their life, and make them a different dog.
“We started cooking in our own kitchen for Crumble. We asked an experienced vet, Alison, and pet nutritionist to join our team. We spent 18 months experimenting with different processes and recipes and testing our food in the lab. The more we tested our food, the more we learnt and the more convinced we became that this food would make a tangible difference to the health of dogs fed processed foods.
“We launched our subscription business in 2018. Since then our customers have told us time and time again that we have changed their dogs’ lives.
“We use the same fresh ingredients and methods you would at home to cook your family meals. Once defrosted, our food requires refrigeration and will only last for 5 days, much the same as if you had made a casserole yourself. We regularly test our food to fully maximise the nutritional value of our food. We are the first to provide a truly varied diet, by cooking new recipes throughout the year. No one else is doing this. This enables us to use seasonal ingredients and strengthens your dog's internal microbiome, an important factor in overall health. We are all about changing dogs’ lives with real food.”
The team at Different Dog are as passionate about the environment as they are about dogs, which is why looking after the planet is part of every decision they make, from their eco-friendly compostable pots, to sourcing fruit & veg locally as possible and which isn’t pretty enough to go on supermarket shelves but perfectly good to eat.
All Different Dog recipes are cooked by hand using high quality fresh ingredients. They adhere to the FEDIAF nutritional guidelines for optimum nutrition for dogs and the company bases their food standards on the Safer Food Better Business guidelines, which are restaurant standard. They also have one of the highest ratings on All About Dog Food (97%) which is the highest in their category and their Trustpilot reviews are phenomenal. (see https://www.trustpilot.com/review/differentdog.com?languages=en&stars=5) In January 2020 Different Dog delivered their 13th consecutive month of sales growth.
In 2019 Different Dog achieved real traction with the press, including a live interview on the BBC News Channel and 5 minutes of TV coverage on Channel 4 during Crufts which was replicated again this year with another visit from Clare Balding to their stand. “We believe that we are the only UK dog food company that is willing and able to demonstrate its cooking processes at shows and events, and hires chefs from the human food industry,” says Charlie. Different Dog also won “Best Natural Dog Food Company 2019” at the UK Small Business Awards as well as being nominated in three categories for this year’s Pet Industry Federation Awards.
Different Dog recently raised £1,351,250 in crowd funding smashing their original target of £750,000. 50% of the investment money will be spent on marketing and the other 50% will be spent on salaries, tech and working capital.
For more information on the crowd funding scheme, go to www.seedrs.com/differentdog
For further information on Different Dog visit: www.differentdog.com or Tel : 01743 384562
